USA Today disowns readers. Earlier this week I reported on how the USA Today newspaper had revamped its website to incorporate a number of social networking features, including reader blogs. While I generally welcome the move by USA Today to invite its readership to contribute content — particularly through commenting on stories — it seems that the powers above at the paper, don't.
VentureBeat reports that "the new content of all these users won’t be tracked by Google or found in Google’s search results, because USA today has used Javascript technology to defy it." Asked why the paper doesn't want to be associated with its readers' contributions (at least where search engines are concerned), Steve Kurtz, director of IT at USA Today replied: "We’re still a newspaper." Right then, so they're not becoming a social network after all. Phew.
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